Tabla de contenidos para Issue 997 en RAIL

rail@bauermedia.co.uk @RAIL LISTENING to Transport Secretary Mark Harper answer questions from the Transport Select Committee on November 15, I was struck by a phrase he repeated several times: “Not everybody will agree.” He said this most frequently in relation to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s shameful decision to axe HS2’s western leg to Manchester and stump to the East Midlands, but also in relation to recent minimum service legislation during strikes and the Government’s decision to shunt Great British Railways into the sidings for legislation around autonomous road vehicles, which he argued was more significant. Let’s swerve around driverless cars for now and concentrate on High Speed 2. Harper’s phrase all but invites disagreement. He appears to want people to push back against his boss. Indeed, at one point, when talking…

DfT ministers appear to be moving quickly to remove protection from land needed for HS2 Phase 2a from Birmingham to Crewe. Despite pressure from experienced railway managers such as former Strategic Rail Authority Chairman Richard Bowker to reinstate Phase 2a, Transport Secretary Mark Harper argued at the Transport Select Committee on November 15 that it cost taxpayers money and blighted the land if protection remained in place. He also argued that Phase 2a was not needed because the West Coast Main Line was not full, although he admitted that view depended on assumptions around rail growth, which in turn depended on economic growth and the way people used the rail network, for which there were no objective measures. November 16’s Public Accounts Committee heard that safeguarding could be lifted with…

The possibility of a settlement in the RMT dispute over its 2022 pay claim with the 14 Department for Transport-controlled English train operating companies (TOCs) could be edging closer. The union’s leadership has agreed to put the Rail Delivery Group’s 5% pay offer to its members, in a vote that closes on November 30. It’s a move that would “take the heat out of the dispute”, according to RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch. The RDG is guaranteeing no compulsory redundancies before December 31 2024, while a recruitment freeze on vacancies will be lifted. If the deal is accepted, it does not mean the end of the entire dispute. However, both sides have agreed a ‘pause’ to allow talks to take place between February and April 2024. In a one-line statement,…

Network Rail has quoted a figure of £271 million to complete the reopening of the entire 31-mile Ivanhoe line from Burton upon Trent, because of a bottleneck single-track section west of Leicester. The high cost, revealed in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Network Rail, shows there are no capacity issues on the double-track section, but that services may have to terminate at Coalville for some years (the first trains could run in 2026 with other new stations at Castle Gresley and Ashby-de-la-Zouch). The extra investment would come in two phases - first redoubling, and then the construction of a new Leicester South station.…

Network Rail has completed the first part of a three-week, £500,000 upgrade of the West of England line at four work sites between Yeovil Junction and Axminster. It includes the closure of Crewkerne Tunnel and stabilisation of a cutting following a landslip in October 2021. The second (longer) 16-day closure between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction will take place between November 25 and December 10. Around 1,400 yards of track between Tisbury and Sherborne and 500 yards through Gillingham station will be replaced and vegetation cleared, along with level crossing work at Wyley and Castleton, and more earthworks at Gillingham Tunnel.…

A temporary terminus is to be created, at an extra cost of £18 million, to enable the first section of West Midlands Metro’s Birmingham Eastside city centre extension to open early. The terminus will be located next to Moor Street Queensway because the full line to Digbeth is being delayed. Tracklaying through Curzon Street station cannot begin until HS2 has handed over the site, which is not expected until 2026 at the earliest. The total cost of the project has now risen to £227m. The interim stop at the Clayton Hotel will provide an interchange between the tram, train and bus services at Moor Street station and the Bus Mall, and be located close to the University and Millennium Point. It could be open in less than two years, by…

Bradford’s 150-year wait for a through station could soon be over, with the Government committing to construction of a new fit-for-purpose complex. The Department for Transport has provided £400,000 to allow the city council to start the planning and design process. No location has been announced or when it will be completed. It is likely to cost around £2 billion, but will cut journey times to Manchester via Huddersfield from 55 minutes to 30. The announcement on November 14 that the project will use money freed up by cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 came on the same day that a summit took place between railway companies and the industry to discuss the Network North concept and the future of Northern Powerhouse Rail. Compared with nearby Leeds, Bradford has…

A crackdown on fare dodgers has led to c2c successfully prosecuting 319 offenders since January, with court costs and fines totalling more than £250,000. A further 128 cases are currently in the court system. This is in addition to 3,198 individual penalty fares that c2c has issued so far this year. One passenger has paid back £2,352 in unpaid fares, having travelled from Southend East to West Ham 142 times on a short ticket. They were spotted tapping a contactless card at West Ham having just travelled on a c2c train. Another individual is paying back £2,462, having been caught regularly travelling from Benfleet to West Ham on a ticket that was only valid to Pitsea.…

The high cost of getting to work or reaching essential services, including by rail, is pushing five million people into poverty, according to a national research group. The independent Social Market Foundation claims that the Government’s decision to peg road fuel duty in 2011 has left a £100 billion shortfall that could have been spent on improvement in public transport. A survey by the group lists Middlesbrough and north-east Liverpool (the Knowsley district with Hunts Cross, Huyton, Kirkby and Kirkdale) as the worst-served areas in England. They are followed by Shropshire, Staffordshire Moors, The Wyre, North Warwickshire, Thanet, Leicester, Stoke and Portsmouth. Londoners fare best, where 28% of people use public transport -more than three times the rest of the country. This is because there is plenty of public transport…

The Gloucestershire-Warwickshire Railway believes it may have resolved some of its deep-seated subsidence problems, with its latest programme of works to secure the banks of the river Isbourne. The 14-mile heritage line has suffered from collapsing embankments, made worse by bad weather and a much greater frequency of services and heavier trains than used the old GWR Stratford-Birmingham route in BR days. The river Isbourne flows beneath the line just north of Winchcombe station, and engineers at the site have noticed that it is running much more freely following recent activity by Walsh Construction, which is also repairing Stanway Viaduct. Even during the worst of last month’s Storm Babet, the water running off the Cotswolds to the river Avon caused less flooding than expected and did not cause any damage…

RAIL use is growing sharply, according to latest Office of Rail and Road figures which show a 19% increase in journeys over April-June 2023, compared with the corresponding three-month period in 2022. ORR’s data shows that passengers made 328 million journeys between April and June, although that strong recovery still leaves rail lagging behind its 2019 position of 437 million journeys for those same months. ScotRail recorded the biggest increase, with journeys up 33% to 19.3 million. It also had the greatest increase in train kilometres (up 28% to 11.3 million), as it restored services cut when the COVID pandemic struck in spring 2020. However, it’s the London and South East train operating companies that are putting in the biggest numbers - led by Govia Thameslink Railway’s 68.3 million, followed…

The Department for Transport is to produce a long-term vision for how the rail industry can improve accessibility at stations. “There’s a submission in front of me for setting up a longer-term vision about how rail can reduce some of the barriers in terms of accessibility - and what commitments the Department for Transport will make, and also the train operators and Network Rail, to set up some milestones to abide by,” said Rail Minister Huw Merriman. “But I’ve pushed back a bit to make sure we’re not just putting words out there, but we are actually doing things and can demonstrate we are getting them done.” Merriman said responses from the recent ticket office closure consultation will also be used, alongside an audit of every railway station in the…

Braking and control systems manufacturer Knorr-Bremse has won a six-year contract with Alstom to use its new CubeControl equipment on Swedish high-speed trains next year. The deal features in the Munich-based company’s financial report for the first nine months of 2023. The orders book rose to a record £6.3 billion, and income increased by 12.7% to €8.7 billion (£7.6bn). However, Knorr-Bremse signed many contracts before international inflation took a hold, and it could increase its prices to match.…

PASSENGER compensation given under the Delay Repay scheme passed the £100 million mark for the first time, in 2022-23. This compares with £89.5m in 2019-20, the last full year before COVID. Long-distance operators, which are more likely to be affected by weather-related and infrastructure problems, and whose per passenger fares are higher, paid out the most. Three of those long-distance operators are largely responsible for the 13% increase in pay-outs. While a number of operators paid less (a notable improver was Greater Anglia, whose new trains have now bedded in), the increase compared with pre-COVID is largely accounted for by Avanti West Coast (payments rose by 63% compared with its Virgin West Coast predecessor), Great Western Railway (up 39%), and LNER (up 9%). At GWR, Delay Repay changed to include…

One in five LGBTQ+ passengers have experienced hate crime on the London transport network in the past year. An Out In London survey found that 82% of respondents change their behaviour or appearance to ‘fit in’, to avoid abuse or harassment. Two-thirds also said that bystanders witnessed incidents, but did not intervene. There is also little confidence or trust in the police. On November 16, London TravelWatch called for urgent action, saying that the most common precaution is to hide or disguise their identities, and that 84% of victimised respondents did not report their experiences, partly for fear about how their report might be handled. TfL Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement Siwan Hayward said: “We want everyone to feel and be safe when travelling around London at all times…

More HST trailer vehicles have moved to Great Yarmouth for export. On November 8, Rail Adventure’s 43465/480 took 40750, 41087 and 42585 east for loading. They were followed three days later by Rail Operations Group’s 37611 Denise conveying ex-CrossCountry Trains’ 41193, 42234/290, 42366/369, 44052, 45002/003/005. On November 13, 43306/307/ 316/320 arrived from Kidderminster, running under their own power and operated by Rail Adventure. This will be the last time they run on the UK network. On the same day, Locomotive Service Limited’s 37667 Flopsie brought 40902 from Eastleigh to Great Yarmouth. All these coaches will remain in Eastern Rail Services’ holding sidings until the next ship arrives to export them. They will then be moved by road to the dockside.…

Two locomotives have been moved between heritage sites. On November 9-10, 73130 was moved from the Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway to the East Kent Railway. On November 11, 20087 was moved from Shackerstone after its sale to a group based at the Kent & East Sussex Railway. Elsewhere, Nemesis Rail’s 47701, now in BR blue, was moved to the Wensleydale Railway on November 6 to cover the winter season of Polar Express trains, which require an Electric Train Heating (ETH) locomotive.…

SOME three years after the first West Midlands Trains Class 730 Aventras were built, passengers have finally been able to travel on the trains. In a low-key entry into service, 730007/010 worked the 0604 Bletchley-Euston and 0724 Euston-Tring on November 13. Initially, London Northwestern Railway (LNWR) expects Class 730s will run six passenger trains every weekday. This will be stepped up in the following weeks as more units are brought into service. West Midlands Trains has accepted 40 of the fleet into traffic (730001/002/005-026/028-043). While initially it is just the one diagram that has been handed over to the class, over the next few weeks more will be coming into service on the West Coast Main Line. The two three-car Class 730/0s are in the purple and orange livery of…

Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram is seeking compensation from train manufacturer Stadler over the poor availability of Merseyrail’s new Class 777 electric multiple units and the delays in getting the fleet into full service. Merseyrail met with Stadler on November 7 to voice its concerns. A statement by the Authority said: “The Mayor made clear, in no uncertain terms, that current performance of the fleet rollout had been frustratingly poor and demanded immediate improvements for passengers.” The fleet has been achieving an average of just 718 minutes per technical incident. While all new trains have teething troubles, this is far below what would be expected. The Class 777/1s, seven battery-electric versions of the four-car trains which can run on the non-electrified line to the new station at Headbolt Lane,…

SIEMENS is testing its first new train for London Underground’s Piccadilly Line at Wildenrath, in Germany, before the first trains cross the Channel to Britain next year for passenger service from 2025. Meanwhile, three cars of the Piccadilly Line’s new stock have been put through extreme temperatures (both hot and cold) in a test facility in Vienna, Austria. This climate testing ranged through temperatures of -15°C to 40°C, extreme warming from sunlight, ice, and wind speeds of up to 100kph (62mph) to check the train could still operate. This testing also examined conditions inside the vehicles to see how extreme weather might affect passengers. The dynamic tests at Wildenrath use continuous test tracks built on the site of a former Royal Air Force station that was vacated after the end…

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MORE than two-thirds of the £36 billion from High Speed 2’s cancelled second phase will be spent on roads, Transport Secretary Mark Harper told MPs on November 15. Under questioning from the Transport Select Committee, Harper justified the decision to switch rail funding to roads by saying “that’s sensible because most people get around on roads”. He added that road spending “meets what people actually do rather than where the spending was before”. Two days later, the Department for Transport announced increased funding (£8bn over ten years) to repair potholes and resurface roads using money that government had planned to borrow to fund HS2’s second phase from the West Midlands to Manchester, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancelled in October after a decade’s development work. Sunak said that HS2’s costs…

Permanent changes to travel patterns and rising costs pushed government into cancelling HS2’s northern half, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said on November 15. Harper told the Transport Select Committee: “At some point in the future people may want to come back to it [the cancellation]. But we have to make decisions based on the best information we have today, and the world has changed. There have been a number of challenges delivering the project -the costs have increased significantly, but also the benefits have reduced. “We’ve seen dramatic changes in how people choose to travel. Some of those are going to be permanent. “I just don’t think that we’re ever going to return to a world where people travel for business and commuting in the exactly the same way as…

In a joint statement on November 8, the RMT and RDG said: “Following further negotiations between RDG and RMT, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the current dispute has been developed which sets out a process for a mutually agreed way forward, including a backdated 2022 pay rise for staff and job security guarantees. “This will now be put to RMT members in each of the train operating companies in a referendum vote. “If accepted, this MOU will terminate the national dispute mandate, creating a pause and respite from industrial action over the Christmas period and into spring next year, while allowing for these important negotiations on proposed reforms to take place at local train operating company level, through the established collective bargaining structures. “These discussions would be aimed at…

Swansea University, a specialist in innovation, has signed an agreement to support the Global Centre of Rail Excellence at Onllwyn, 20 miles away. They will share expertise in areas that include signalling, infrastructure and civil engineering. Students can learn about renewable energy, natural sciences, and a wide range of engineering disciplines. Separately, the university will also join Birmingham and Cardiff as a partner in a new Centre of Excellence for Railway Testing, Validation and Customer Experience, following a £15 million award from the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund.…

Train operating companies’ contracts with the Department for Transport are set to change to give companies more incentives to attract passengers and grow revenue, according to Transport Secretary Mark Harper. Noting that rail could only become sustainable by increasing revenue or cutting costs, Harper told the Transport Select Committee on November 15: “I would much rather, and I think the industry would rather, grow revenue.” He said he was looking to give TOCs some revenue risk and more incentives to bring passengers back to rail, using innovation and marketing skills that those companies have shown in the past. He cited the success of open access operators, arguing that they showed that TOCs could shoulder more financial risk. However, he said the process should be gradual, rather than a switch in…

ALSTOM UK has started a consultation to make 1,330 jobs redundant at its Derby Litchurch Lane plant. It is the UK’s only full end-to-end train design and manufacturing facility. Other sites are assembly halls that bring together components manufactured elsewhere. The move will affect 550 Alstom permanent employees and 780 contractors. It is in response to a lack of orders, with no confirmed workload beyond the first quarter of 2024. The only significant rolling stock order in the last three and a half years has been for HS2 trains (won by Alstom in a joint venture with Hitachi), but these have yet to be designed and are not required until 2025-26. “Alstom UK has been working with the Government for the last six months with the joint objective of securing…

Formation of Great British Railways (GBR) looks unlikely over the next year, leaving the problem of what to do with the structure of UK railways in the hands of the next goverment. Although the Government announced draft legislation in the King’s Speech on November 7, Transport Secretary Mark Harper later told MPs it was unlikely that full legislation would follow in the next year. Harper told November 15’s meeting of the Transport Select Committee: “I think it is unlikely we can proceed to full legislation this session, but it’s important to do this scrutiny of this draft legislation.” He defended this further scrutiny, which follows extensive consultation conducted by Keith Williams for his review in 2019 that recommended GBR’s creation as a guiding mind, saying that there was still “quite…

Grice is TF director Chiltern Railways’ Interim Head of Customer Strategy and former Virgin West Coast executive Natasha Grice has moved to Transport Focus as Director. The new-look TF leadership team, led by Chief Executive Alex Robertson, also includes David Sidebottom (Director, Nations and Regions) and Nigel Holden (Chief Operating Officer). Hinds joins Northern Richard Hinds took over as Northern’s new Finance Director from November 13. Previously with world technology firm Exertis for seven years, he also served as a platoon commander in the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment.…

Network Rail Chairman Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill has been named New Londoner of the Year 2023, for his positive contribution to the capital and his work in public transport. At the award ceremony at The Guildhall on November 15, Hendy said: “The railway needs structural reform which this government has talked about, and the next one will have to do, otherwise the huge investments politicians talk about won’t deliver their true value. “I’m working on Victoria, Waterloo, Euston, Stratford and Clapham Junction, but they won’t be completed in my tenure at NR. “I’m following wise advice that if you’re given a big organisation, your job is to look after it, make it a success, and leave it for others better than you found it.”…

London Northwestern Railway returned trains to the Bedford-Bletchley Marston Vale line from November 20, with three Class 150s now dedicated for the route. Ex-Northern 150137/139/141 were acquired to operate on the line, which had previously used Class 230 Vivarail units. When Vivarail went bust, it could no longer support the units, so buses were used to run the service until the Class 150s could be sourced. Prior to the arrival of the ‘230s’, Class 150s had worked the line.…

Proposals for a Liverpool light rail system could be revived if Labour comes to power at the next General Election, says its Mayor Steve Rotheram. Back in 2007, Labour Transport Secretary Alistair Darling cancelled the three-line Merseytram scheme because it was considered too expensive at £325 million, although £70m was spent on development. The new figure for completion has been estimated by experts at up to £1 billion. Leeds, Bristol and Southampton schemes were dropped at the same time for similar reasons, although plans for Leeds are on the way back. The idea of a tramway to serve the Liverpool city population of around 500,000 has never gone away, with a variety of proposals advanced over the past decade, including battery trams on roads. Rotheram told an audience discussing the…

A large percentage of the UK’s pre-1990 train fleet is on borrowed time, according to an industry update that says determined and co-ordinated action is needed now to achieve net zero. The Rail Safety & Standards Board (RSSB) report is calling on the Government to come clean over the next two years on its intentions for the rail industry, if it is to meet its commitment to be completely emission-free by 2050. Its new Sustainable Rail Blueprint document, financed by the Department for Transport, is demanding solid directives from the DfT on rail passenger and freight growth. Linked to this is the increased use of trains that operate on alternative power sources such as hydrogen and battery. RSSB says there is a great need to step this up over the…

Network Rail is examining four options for rehabilitating track on the March-Wisbech line that is now in poor condition after more than two decades out of use. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has been told that there is a “strong strategic case” for reopening the line, although this has been the case for many years and the return of services seems no closer. Network Rail Business Development Sponsor Robert Russell said an agreement on further funding will allow studies to move forward on conventional rail, tram-train, light rail, and very light rail. Many Wisbech people hope for full integration with the main line to allow possible through trains to Cambridge and beyond. Many consider that the preparation of a vaguely labelled ‘Strategic Option Appraisal Report’ is simply another delaying…

Countries across Europe are being urged to reduce their involvement in the way inter-city services are run, to allow private businesses to run more trains and improve the quality. ALLRAIL, whose members include Angel Trains and the Go-Ahead Group from the UK, has renewed its call for EU nations to cut public subsidies and to allow operators to grow revenues and speed up the shift from road and air transport. It also criticises the general lack of research into passenger needs. It says that while European countries upped their subsidies by 6% between 2018-20, the growth in business was only 0.45%. Switzerland is singled out for particular criticism for handing out more and more public money without evidence of any service improvements. “It is understandable if governments want to spend…

Locomotive Services Limited’s recently acquired Class 20s, 20118 Saltburn-by-the-Sea and 20132, have been repainted and should be ready to return to traffic soon. They have retained their Railfreight grey livery. They were acquired earlier this year from Harry Needle Railroad Company, in a swap deal with 20302/305 moving the other way. They join LSL’s other two Class 20 (20096/107, also ex-HNRC machines), which are in British Railways Green as D8096 and D8107. Meanwhile, HNRC is working on returning 20302/311 to use at Barrow Hill. It owns all surviving ex-DRS Class 20/3s (20301-305/308/309/311/312/314), with 20309 in use at Hope Cement Works.…

Colas Rail has put the first of its five recently acquired HST power cars (43285) into traffic, running in unbranded CrossCountry livery with Colas logos on its bodyside. It means that the operator now has 43251/257/272/274/277/285 in traffic. They are due to be joined by fellow ex-XC 43301/303/321/357, owned by Porterbrook. Once all these are commissioned, it should allow Colas to return its three hired Class 37s (37607/610/612) to Harry Needle Railroad Company. Meanwhile, 43013 Mark Carne CBE, the first of the three Network Rail power cars which has been stopped for overhaul and fitting with ECTS equipment, has now returned to traffic. Its return should allow either 43290 or 43299 to be stood down if required. 43014 and 43062 John Armitt are also being fitted with ECTS.…

West Coast Railways has undertaken test runs for both 47854 Diamond Jubilee and 57006, pending their return to traffic. On November 8, the two locomotives took a coach from Carnforth to Keighley. The outward journey was worked by the ‘57’, with 37676 Loch Rannoch included in the train for insurance. Having dropped the coach, the trio returned with the Class 47 leading and the other two locomotives as dead weight. This is the first time 47854 had worked a train for 18 months, while 57006 has been inactive for four months. Meanwhile, at the Nemesis site at Burton, 47760 is close to a return to traffic after a rewire and overhaul. It has received a new coat of WCR maroon.…

Direct Rail Services has withdrawn 37218 and 37401 Mary Queen of Scots from traffic, with the locomotives already offered for sale along with 37069 and 37402/423. 37218, the company’s last original generator-fitted Class 37/0, was moved from Carlisle to Kingmoor to Crewe Gresty Bridge, where the five locomotives will be made available for inspection by interested parties. It arrived on November 17. 37401 had arrived at Crewe on November 2, having been stopped from its role as a Railhead Treatment Train standby locomotive due to its high engine hours. Assuming the five locomotives are sold, it will leave DRS with just 37407/419/422/425 and 37716 in traffic - all employed on RHTT work. Also still on the company’s books is 37424, which is in store due to its wheelset condition. After…

Brodie Rail Engineering is offering its sole Class 156 for sale or lease. The unit (156478) was owned by Angel Trains, but was written off after it sustained severe flood damage at Mauchline on December 21 2014. Brodie Rail Engineering acquired the unit and refurbished it, and then leased it directly back to ScotRail from October 2016. Its lease was recently ended, and now the diesel multiple unit is being made available for purchase. It is the first of the 114-strong fleet of two-car Class 156s, built by Metro-Cammell between 1987 and 1989, to be withdrawn from service.…

Contributions for by far the UK’s most published column by the same author - now in its 42nd year -are most welcome from all sources. Personal observations, society magazines, website printouts and live links, transport group newsletters and media cuttings (with dates, please) are sought to maintain topicality. Please email your contributions direct to hj@howardjohnston.co.uk, or rail@bauermedia.co.uk WESTERN Avoncliff: Volunteers at the Bristol-Westbury line station have won this year’s Stations in Bloom award. The annual competition is run across Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. Buckfastleigh: The South Devon Railway will launch a £1 million share issue on December 1. Money is needed for a new building for carriage repairs, an extension to the running and maintenance shed, a new visitor centre, upgraded museum, and rolling stock storage area.…

THERE was a time when rail freight meant coal. Trains plodding from pits to power stations with coal for electricity generation or from pits to ports for export - unbraked wagons with a guard’s van swinging from their tail. Dr Beeching, of branch line closure infamy, pushed British Railways forward into an era of air-braked coal wagons and the concept of merry-go-round trains that circulated continuously between collieries and power station. It’s only in the last decade that this traffic (the reason railways were born) has died away as Britain switched to gas and renewable sources to generate electricity. This means that the overwhelming bulk of today’s rail freight is container traffic to and from ports. There’s also a good volume of heavy aggregates trains from quarries such as Somerset’s…

NEEDING to go to Munich to record a TV interview, I decided to go by train. Munich, at the southern end of Germany, is around a nine-hour journey for me, which meant taking three days for a trip that (at a pinch) could have been undertaken in one. But as it was far more pleasant, and with a lot of work to do on a book, it was a perfect way to travel. I was routed by Brussels on the outgoing journey, but came back via Paris, which gave me the opportunity to travel on Eurostar, DB and a French TGV. I also learnt a few things about European (and particularly German) train travel. And it is by no means all good news. But let’s start with the positives: 1:…

OpinionIndustryInsider TRAIN drivers are to undertake a new round of strike action, as ASLEF makes use of the window available before minimum service legislation that will apply to rail comes into force. Regulations that define the process to be adopted are expected to be put into effect in time for the Christmas/New Year holiday (RAIL 996). Again, the strike impact will be on train operating companies controlled by the Department for Transport that are not permitted to negotiate locally to reach agreement on pay and productivity conditions. As well as strike days called by ASLEF for different operators between December 2-8, there is also to be an overtime ban between December 1-9 covering all the operators concerned, which will mean a planned reduction of services. Passenger and freight operators that…

Some final thoughts from the team at RAIL @RAIL Send contributions to: mike.wright@bauermedia.co.uk Filey station on the Scarborough-Hull line has been given a comprehensive clean-up by a large team of volunteers that included members of North Yorkshire council (pictured below). They painted fences, picked up litter, and tidied up the platforms and surrounding areas. Elsewhere on the Northern network, the operator is trying to rid Driffield and Morpeth stations from pigeons by broadcasting noises of predatory hawks, installing plastic owls, and using a special liquid on ledges and roof trusses that artificially pretends they are too hot to land on. And to the west of the region, a display of images at Parbold station shows how the location on the Manchester-Southport line has changed over the past 70 years. The…

Public money might need to go into tunnelling from Old Oak Common to Euston, a senior civil servant told the Public Accounts Committee on November 16. Alan Over, DfT’s senior responsible officer for HS2, said the money might be needed in the short term, but would need to be paid back by the private investors that government now hopes will pay to build Euston station and the tunnels from Old Oak Common. At the same meeting, DfT Permanent Secretary Dame Bernadette Kelly would not be drawn on an opening date for Euston. But she said it was likely that Old Oak Common, in west London, would act as HS2’s southern terminus before Euston. DfT expects to create a development corporation to deliver Euston, including a station cut back to six…

A series of six regional one-day strikes in early December is the latest tactic by drivers’ union ASLEF to “ratchet up the pressure” to try to force the Government to offer a bigger pay rise to train drivers. Each day the strikes will target a different part of the country, with the aim of creating the maximum disruption (especially for long-distance passengers) from the fewest strike days for union members. During the same period, a continuous nine-day overtime ban (affecting rest-day working) will be in place across all the 14 train operating companies (TOCs) in England with which ASLEF has been in dispute for the past 18 months. ASLEF has held 14 one-day strikes since its first (on July 30 2022). It has also imposed overtime bans (rest-day working) on…

RMT members at London Underground have re-endorsed continued industrial action that has been in place since January 25 and which involves refusing to carry out some tasks, in a long-running dispute over job security, pensions and working agreements. The ballot also approved strike action, and is the fourth vote on industrial action in the dispute since June 2022. Of the 9,667 members eligible to vote in November, 5,292 voted ‘yes’ for strikes and 216 ‘no’; broadly the same result as in the previous May ballot. Since January 25, RMT members in all grades have refused to provide familiarisation for staff who do not usually work at a location, carried out no staff training for roles “outside of their normal substantive role”, and no training “outside of a member’s normal substantive…

LONDON could gain an additional 15 high-speed trains a day to Belgium and the Netherlands, under ambitious plans unveiled on November 14 by Dutch startup Heuro. Established by a trio of entrepreneurs, led by father and son Maarten and Roemer van den Biggelaar, Heuro aims to compete directly with Eurostar on the key Amsterdam-Paris/London routes from 2028, offering up to 15 trips per day to London and 16 to Paris. Inspired by the success of Italian open access operator .italo and Trenitalia’s high-speed ventures in Spain and France, Heuro is keen to shift travellers from air to rail on some of Europe’s busiest short-haul air routes, by offering more trains and lower fares. “We just want lower prices and more people off planes and on trains. Eurostar is often quite…

Railtour promoter logos have started to appear on Network Rail-run station boards, following work carried out by the company to “bring charters in line with other trains”. Ian Stone, special trains manager at NR, said charter train promoter logos and the name of special trains will automatically be placed in the same way the logos of normal operators appear, and that they will be visible on boards at Euston, Waterloo, Victoria and other Network Rail stations as and when the upgraded boards are rolled out. The first time they appeared was at Euston on September 30. “It has been hard to tell which charter train is which, because the boards showed ‘charter train operated by charter train, calling at charter train’,” Stone told RAIL. “It is publicity for the companies…

There is no need to wait for the railway industry to sit on its hands while the Government signs off Great British Railways, because much of the reforms can be carried out without legislation. That is the view of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), whose new report presses for urgent action for the industry to get back on its feet after COVID. CILT notes that it has now been two years since publication of the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, yet there is still very little detail around how it will actually be implemented. Martin Fleetwood, who led the CILT study, said: “Recognising that the GBR Transition Team has been working hard to address them, there are still areas where choices need to be made to benefit passengers…

TRANSPORT for the North’s rail committee has given qualified support to a new timetable for the East Coast Main Line that should take effect from December 2024, with members wanting more assurances over infrastructure improvements that could lead to more services running in future. The rail industry’s December 2024 timetable adds a third Newcastle-London service. But this comes at the expense of restoring the second hourly train from Tyneside to Manchester that TransPennine Express ran before the pandemic took hold in 2020. The timetable also adds an hourly service between Middlesbrough and Newcastle via Sunderland (to give two trains per hour) and an hourly Leeds-Wakefield Westgate-Sheffield service, to add more capacity than CrossCountry can provide. Elsewhere, Bradford Forster Square and Middlesbrough receive London trains every other hour and there is…

The London Overground could be extended to run into London Bridge station, replacing Southern services that were axed last year. Transport for London has been criticised for supporting the frequency reduction since COVID from four trains per hour to two, which resulted in the withdrawal and scrapping (without replacement) of Southern’s Class 455 electric multiple units. This has resulted in severe overcrowding on some routes, including the Sydenham corridor. While Southern blamed the fall in revenue, the knock-on effect has caused problems elsewhere in the capital and across the South East. With patronage now returning to pre-pandemic levels, boosted by the expansion of the low emission zone for motorists, TfL has revealed that it has been examining whether it can expand its timetable from Crystal Palace to Dalston Junction and…

Freightliner named 66508 City of Doncaster at an event in the city on November 10. At the same event, 66623 was unveiled with the Lest We Forget nameplates that had previously been carried by 66413. Meanwhile, the company’s 59101 has been stopped for a repaint. So far, Freightliner has repainted 59202-206 into its orange livery, leaving just 59201 in the old DB Cargo red. None of the other ‘59/0s’ or ‘59/1s’ has yet been repainted. It is believed that 59101 could appear in a new customer livery.…

Hopes that the Government’s Autumn Statement on November 22 would announce funding for major rail schemes were dashed, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer focused on tax cuts. Jeremy Hunt made no announcement about funding the Transpennine Route Upgrade’s major remodelling for Huddersfield, despite senior Network Rail managers assuring RAIL that the Treasury had agreed funding. This part of TRU received a Development Consent Order from the Transport Secretary back in June 2022. The Transport Secretary granted a similar order a year ago to rebuild the three-mile disused branch line to Portishead (near Bristol), although its full business case is not expected to be complete until 2024. The Treasury’s formal Autumn Statement document, published on the same day, said the Government was continuing to progress East West Rail as part…

DB Cargo is to withdraw its last handful of operational Class 60 heavy freight locomotives by the end of the year. The remaining four locomotives in traffic (60024/040/062/074) are all expected to be stood down due to their high engine hours, as well as being due exams which the company is not prepared to undertake. Their turns will be switched to Class 66s, with pairs of locomotives needed on some of the heavier trainload flows. Recently stood down from traffic and moved into stored pools are 60007/007/010/015/017/044/059/066/100. These are some of the 21 Class 60s put through the ‘Super 60’ overhaul programme that started in 2011 and which was intended to give the locomotives up to 15 years’ extended service. On December 16, a DB Cargo 60 should be in…

LNER has ordered a fleet of ten CAF ten-car tri-mode trains to supplement its fleet of 65 Hitachi Class 800/801 Azuma bi-mode and electric multiple units, for use on the King's Cross-Edinburgh/ Leeds route. The new trains can operate in electric, battery or diesel mode. They will be financed by Porterbrook. LNER would not be drawn on why it had rejected Hitachi in favour of CAF, other than to say that a “thorough procurement process was undertaken, following which CAF has been named as the successful manufacturer and maintainer of the fleet”. Nor would it confirm whether or not the new trains will allow level boarding. Asked specifically by RAIL, the operator replied: “Discussions on the specifics of our new train fleet are very much in the early stages. We…

The first of the four ex-Southern Class 171s taken on earlier this year by East Midlands Railway has been repainted, with 170423 now in EMR’s purple livery. The four units were delivered as 170421-424 to ScotRail in August 2000. They were transferred to Southern in April 2015, when they were reformed as two two-car and two four-car units and numbered 171201/202 and 171401/402. When they transferred to EMR, they were reformed as four three-car sets and initially renumbered as 170921, 170923, 170922 and 170924 respectively, to highlight the fact that they still retained their Dellner couplers. These have since been replaced with Scharfenberg units so that they can couple to EMR’s Turbostar fleet and the units have regained their Class 170/4 numbers. Following the transfer of the last Class 170/5s…

GB Railfreight has moved its four long-term withdrawn Class 92s from the HNRC site at Worksop to the UKRL site at Loughborough. The bogie-less shells of 92021/040/045/046 were moved by road in early November. They had been at Worksop since December 2021. They were four of 16 ex-SNCF and Eurostar UK Class 92s acquired by GBRf in January 2014, of which 92006/010/014/018/020/023/028/032/033/038/043/044 were returned to traffic. GBRf uses Class 92s to work Caledonian Sleeper trains from Euston to Glasgow Central and Edinburgh, as well as on HS1 freight trains.…

GB Railfreight has bought 56303 from UK Rail Leasing and will use it to donate parts for its Class 69 conversions project. The locomotive was moved from Willesden to Longport by road on November 13. It had been excluded from the initial deal in which GBRf purchased 17 Class 56s from UKRL for conversion to Class 69s. It had been hit in a collision in May 2018, while stabled in Wembley Yard, and sustained serious cab damage. No cause of the accident has ever been ascertained.…

The timetable change on December 10 means a slight reduction in LNER Class 91-hauled Mk 4 turns on the East Coast Main Line. The number of diagrams on Mondays to Saturdays will drop from five to four, with an Azuma now booked on Mondays-Fridays to operate the 0530 Leeds-King’s Cross, the 0903 King’s Cross-Leeds, the 1145 Leeds-King’s Cross and the 1903 King’s Cross-Leeds. On Saturdays, one of the Hitachi Azumas will replace a Class 91/Mk 4 set for the 0505 Leeds-King’s Cross, the 0906 King’s Cross-York, the 1202 York-King’s Cross, the 1506 King’s Cross-York, the 1802 York-King’s Cross, and the 2200 King’s Cross-Leeds. This ends Class 91 operation to York, with the exception of the 0440 York-King’s Cross. However, on Sundays, two of three additional trains between Leeds and King’s…

Award for Trough-Tec Doncaster-based lineside cable casing and anti-slip walkway supplier Trough-Tec Systems has been awarded an Environmental Product Declaration certification for its products, which are made from 100% recycled household waste and can be disposed of cleanly. Rail safety booklet An online Rail Safety Showcase booklet shows how the UK industry is making contributions to reducing the number of accidents. Its promoter, the Rail Forum, is organising another nationwide Rail Safety Week from June 24-30 next year. A haven for bats Bats are roosting in 90% of disused tunnels, 54% of viaducts, and 35% of bridges, according to a new survey by Historical Railway Estate, which manages 3,100 disused structures around the UK. GA ramps go north Greater Anglia has donated lightweight accessibility ramps, rendered surplus by the withdrawal…

Revenue control inspectors and police checking up on passengers at Sutton Coldfield station on October 25 caught one in ten of them travelling without a valid ticket. Each were handed a £100 penalty fine. The visit to one of the West Midlands’ busiest stations had started out as a ‘reassurance exercise’, but it became more serious when 64 out of 500 people spoken to - mainly commuters and students - were found to have broken the law. It had been a similar story on February 14 this year, when 68 fare dodgers were caught, with a further 60 two weeks later on March 2.…

If you believe the spin from the Government, “no one is travelling by rail” after the pandemic. That, as we all know, is absolute tosh. Yes, there has been a decline in commuting, as more people elect to continue working from home after lockdowns forced them to do so. But on the other hand, leisure travel by rail is recovering well. This is down to a combination of factors. During the pandemic, many would have vowed to do more out of the house when free to do so, and as soon as normality returned, many exploited a freedom which pre-pandemic had been taken for granted. People would go to see relatives, go to sporting events, or go and explore our great nation. Likewise, those who now spent all week ‘chained’…

AT last there’s some progress in the long-running dispute between the RMT union and the Rail Delivery Group. There’s a new offer on the table from the RDG, and union leaders are putting it to members at train operators. That’s progress because the last offer, back in the spring, was blocked by the union’s National Executive Committee without members having a say. The latest offer is very similar to spring’s, with two stages. If union members vote to accept the offer, then the first stage triggers a 5% pay rise backdated to 2022, before talks about 2023 and reforms start at individual train operators as the second stage. Accepting the offer also terminates the RMT’s current mandate for a national dispute. This was the sticking point last spring, when RMT…

WIN WELCOME to the RAILCrossword. In this issue, two successful solvers can head off to the Midlands and back to the days of diesel, courtesy of the LNWR Society (https://lnwrs.org.uk/society-publications). Changing Engines tells the story of the transition from steam power to diesel and electric traction in the Birmingham and Rugby Districts of the London Midland Region, encompassing the former London and North Western Lines, and those of other companies subsumed into the Birmingham Division in the 1960s. Starting with the early-prototype diesel locomotives, it then covers the introduction of diesel shunters and multiple units during the 1950s, working through to the final elimination of steam in 1967 and the changes made to the end of the decade. Changing Engines (hardback, 140 pages, retail price £30 plus £3 postage) covers…